


Closing the (Age) Gap

by SavvyLark



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-12
Updated: 2018-01-12
Packaged: 2019-03-04 00:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13352850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SavvyLark/pseuds/SavvyLark
Summary: “So you're telling me you've always had a thing for older men?” Johanna asks Katniss with a smirk.“Oh don't sound so surprised! You've noticed!” Katniss tips her head to give Jo some attitude.Katniss only dates older guys...or maybe not?





	Closing the (Age) Gap

It's a busy Friday night, the bar is still buzzing with a good time. Johanna, Katniss, and Rue are settled in the usual booth and have already downed enough drinks to be tipsy and giggly. 

“So you're telling me you've always had a thing for older men?” Johanna asks Katniss with a smirk. 

“Oh don't sound so surprised! You've noticed!” Katniss tips her head to give Jo some attitude. 

“Oh I've noticed! Hell, I'm surprised you aren't humping that older guy with the dad-bod in the corner!” Johanna teases. 

Katniss scowls and rolls her eyes. 

Rue laughs. 

“Well. That is how I met her, she was with my older brother for a while!” Rue tells Joanna.

Johanna’s eyebrows raise. “Not bad!” She smirks. 

Katniss sighs in memory, “Not bad at ALL! Sorry Rue, but your brother is gorgeous.” She winks. Rue waves her arm to dismiss it and sips her amaretto sour. 

“Thresh is only 6 years older that's not that big of a gap!” K tells Johanna. 

“The fact remains! So how big of gap have you gone for?” Johanna asks.

Katniss thinks for a moment and bites her lip.  
“Umm, 15 years. Ooh he was hot. He still had the body, but there was little bit of gray at his temples I would run my fingers through. His life experience and the things he would say really made it worthwhile.” Katniss signs.

“What's your thing with older guys anyway?” Rue asks with a snicker.

“Yeah, how did it start that you only go for the older type? I mean I'm more of a variety girl myself!” Jo says with a mix of pride and mischief. 

“I don't know, all the boys my age were so immature and disgusting. My first crush was my best friend Gale and he was just, older and level-headed, protective even.”  
Katniss shrugs.

“That's what I want in a guy, not Gale, that was a disaster, but someone older, level-headed, protective. You've seen my firey side, I would chew up and spit out a caring sensitive guy my age, he would go running back to his mommy!” Katniss rambles off, clearly the effects of alcohol are bringing this side of Katniss Johanna loves. 

Rue and Johanna roar with laughter. 

“I want someone who can handle me, in all the right places and isn't threatened to let me be me!” All three women cheer and toast to Katniss’s ideas. 

Katniss flirts with a charming, and funny redhead police officer who’s clearly at least in his late 20’s and drags him to the dance floor. 

Johanna gives a knowing wink. 

When Katniss meets Dane at a coffee shop he seem like a yuppie, but she thinks he's cute. Clean cut blonde hair, icy blue eyes, and mischievous smile. After a date or two she realizes the player vibe he gives off is just an act. He's a kind, hard working and thoughtful man with hard edges just like herself. He's 6 years older just how she likes it. He doesn't actually have much more life experience than she does, because of her rough childhood but he will do. 

*@$!*!$@#@$*

“This was a mistake. This was a huge mistake. Why why whyyyy did I agree to come?” Katniss mutters to herself as she tries to calm down in the bathroom. 

Dane has a really hot brother. It shouldn't matter. Katniss should be really into her ‘sort of boyfriend.’ So why is her heart pounding and her libido on high alert for this guy, Peeta who can't be more than a year older than her. 

When she walked in the door of Dane’s parents house, she wasn't even paying attention. She was chanting in her head “it's only dinner, this isn't a big deal, it's just dinner with Dane’s family.”  
Her lips must have been moving because as Dane’s brother took her coat he said “What was that?” 

She looked up to meet the most mesmerizing ocean blue eye so deep that she could swim in them for days. His wavy blond hair was styled in an oxford cut, which tends to look douchey to Katniss but on this guy, with the offset of trimmed stubble on his strong jawline he looks dreamy. 

Dreamy? Really? 

She shook her thoughts off, only to take in his blue and gray plaid button up, his rolled up sleeves add a causal style while showing off his tan and toned forearms. 

Dane’s brother's eyes seemed to light up as he took her in and laughed when he noticed her doing the same. 

At that point Katniss realized she was staring. She cleared her throat and answered his question. “Uh, I was saying, to myself, ‘it's just dinner, you can do this’ I guess I'm a little nervous.” 

It's surprising that she let him in on her internal monologue. Something in his eyes makes her want to trust him. 

This brother of Dane’s leaned in to whisper in her ear. His hot breath on Katniss’s neck made her heart beat faster and a delicious heat spread through her. “It will be okay, you just have to watch out for our mother. She can be a nightmare, but honestly her opinion doesn't matter to Dane.”

Dane. Right, I'm here with Dane she remembered. 

Nodding back she regained her senses.

“I'm Peeta by the way, Dane’s youngest brother.” He said with a shy but so sincere smile.

The entire evening was interesting to say the least. Mrs. Mellark is full of backhanded comments that Katniss deflected or brushed off. She would be one hell of a monster-in-law that's for sure. 

Dane was not what she expected that evening either. He seemed smug about having her there. Bragged to his mother about Katniss's accomplishments, advanced degree, and experience modeling (a favor for a designer friend but apparently that detail doesn't matter.) Which quickly lead to how well his marketing firm is doing all likely from his success. 

RIGHT. So I'm actually arm candy? 

Dane was crass at times, in front of his family the chauvinist edge came back. 

Dane even made a joke at Katniss's expense, implying that he was hoping she would be ‘finally giving him some action.’ This earned him a disgusted look from everyone at the table. 

Katniss did not easily forget that he showed his real colors. Jerk. 

The most troubling part of the evening is how well she hit it off with Peeta. Despite having known Dane longer, their interactions were forced and awkward. While talking to Peeta came so easy. 

Peeta was funny and kept Katniss in the conversation, explaining things being talked about. Giving knowing smirks or eyerolls at his mother's ridiculous words. He asked her about herself, and the two seemed to share a similar sense of humor. More than once Peeta had Katniss laughing to a degree that usually involves alcohol. 

At one point Peeta trapped Katniss in an intense gaze. She tried but was helpless to break away from his gorgeous eyes. The moment can only be described as an electric current running from Peeta to Katniss, dancing through every vein and artery and descending back to Peeta. 

Peeta bit down on his lower lip and Katniss's breath caught. 

Her desire to bite that lip with her own teeth was so strong she had to look away. 

Dane. Think of Dane. 

Dane was clueless to the moment that transpired between the girl he was dating and his brother. Lost in quite the braggadocious story that his parents were eating up. 

Katniss rolled her eyes. 

When there was a break in the conversation Katniss took the opportunity to creep away.  
“I forgot I told Prim I would call her about how her clinicals went today.” She had told Dane.

“Who?” Dane apparently didn't remember Katniss had a sister. The most important person in her life. 

Incredulous, but beyond caring she just explained with no emotion, “my sister.”

She looked up to explain to the rest of the table, “My sister is in Med school, I told her I would call her after her day of clinicals. Excuse me.” Katniss stood up and headed to another room for privacy. 

“This was huge mistake.” She murmured again at her reflection in the mirror.

 

Katniss had stalled long enough after her call ended, and joined the others for cake and wine. Trying her best to fake interest but she was already breaking it off with Dane Mellark in her mind. 

Peeta tries to catch her eye a few times. Somehow Katniss instinctively knows he's asking if everything is okay all of this,  
“How messed up that this stranger is more in tune with my mood than the guy I'm dating?” she thinks to herself.

Katniss can't even meet Peeta's eyes. She's so done with this whole evening.

Dane and Katniss's break up was surprisingly messy and drawn out despite then being barely exclusive. Apparently Dane was much more invested that Katniss was. 

Weird drunk phone calls filled her voicemail. Apparently age doesn't always bring about maturity. 

One girls night a few months later Katniss comes to a decision. The kind of honesty that comes with just the right amount of alcohol.

“I think I'm going to take a break from dating to clear my head.” She blurts out in one breath.

Rue looks surprised. 

“That old Dane guy really did a number on you, huh?” Jo remarks.

Katniss nods ‘no' and gulps down the rest of her drink. “No, his brother!! I've never met a man so gorgeous and kind. We just clicked. The attraction and connection I felt was insane. It was embarrassing!” She tips her head purses her lips and squints in thought. 

“So go after the brother! Wouldn't be the first time someone did that!” Rue smiles and winks at Johanna who has experienced that situation on more than one occasion. 

We laugh at Johanna’s expense.

“He's actually my age, and he was more level headed and more mature than his brother 6 years older than us.” She says with a huff and closes her eyes tight. 

Rue and Johanna just shrug at her dramatic assessment. 

Six months later the snow is thawing and the earliest signs of spring are peaking out of hibernation.  
Katniss is meeting Cinna, her fashion designer friend for a meeting on a new project he want her in.

Katniss finds a bright yellow dandelion breaking through the melting snow. She stops to pick it, thinking of how her late father taught her it’s a reminder of hope, that things can be good again. 

Katniss leisurely strolls into the café and spots Cinna, sitting at table talking to a broad shouldered man who has a clean cut blonde head of hair.  
Cinna greets her as she approached the table then motions to the man he's been talking to, which gives her pause. 

“Katniss this is--”

“Peeta Mellark.” Katniss answers Cinna, forces a somewhat awkward smile at her friend, then shifts her eyes to meet easily the most attractive person she had ever laid eyes on.

“Nice to see you again.” Katniss says in a sultry, somewhat breathy voice. Surprised to find that how relieved she is to meet his deep blue eyes again. 

Peeta's mouth gapes open at the sight of her. His eyes seem to gleam when they meet her molten silver ones. The feeling of an electric current passes through her body from his captivates her once again. 

Cinna’s words break them out of their trance. “Oh, you two have met before? Good. Peeta, this is my muse, Katniss Everdeen. If you'll allow it, you two will be working together for the next year!” 

Katniss bites her lip in thought then nods. Amusement and happiness dancing in her eyes.  
“I'll allow it.” She answers.


End file.
